Family Missions, Macomb IL

This will be our first overnight family missions week experience at FBM

Campers will enjoy visiting a local nursing home as they sing camp songs to the residents and make crafts for them

Looking forward to further developing relationships with the Compton Heights Campers

2015 Recap

During the summer of 2015, fbmstudents had the privilege of traveling to Macomb ,IL to facilitate a week-long summer camp for inner city kids from Compton Heights, MO. You could sense the anticipation of what was to come as soon as we made the turn into the long narrow, gravel driveway of Lake Serenity Retreat. We soaked in the open beauty and serenity of the retreat grounds; sensing right away that this would be a week that would forever be stamped upon our hearts.

Knowing we had only one day of preparation prior to the camp kids arriving, we quickly began to prepare for our week. We organized supplies for our bible study and craft rotations, set up the needed sound system and screen for our worship and bible story sessions, prepared and organized the kitchen which would serve three square meals and snacks each day, as well as cleaned the lodge from top to bottom. By the end of the day we were spent, but more than ready to greet those sweet faces the following day.

We planned to welcome the kids to Serenity Lake Retreat with a crazy amount of wired energy, so we positioned ourselves intermittently beginning at the entrance of the long, narrow driveway, ending at the front door of the lodge. In our hands… foam pool noodles... staged and ready to beat the outside windows of the bus as they made the long journey in. They were grinning from ear to ear at the unexpected welcoming!

The week was jammed packed with special memories in the making. The main focus was to be intentional about building a personal relationship with the kids; a relationship that points them back to Jesus. Our fbmstudents did that well! The campers enjoyed many adventures that week: hands-on small group lessons, praise and worship, crafts, dance parties, game time, relay competitions, swimming at the lake (some going off the diving board for the first time), bike riding, and a night hike.

As the campers left at the end of the week, they were sent away with the same amount of crazy, wired energy… pool noodles in hand…all the way down the driveway of Serenity Lake Retreat. There was a satisfied, quiet peace that settled over our students as they began to clean up the retreat grounds and prepare to head home. Lives were changed that week; children accepted Christ for the first time--children left feelingacceptedand loved--and the hearts of our students were forever changed because of those precious kids. Compton Heights Campers, you will always have a piece of our hearts. To God be the Glory!